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20 Cool Uses for Twitter in Health and Medicine

Twitter is a great social networking tool, but you also can use it for social advocacy. For instance, you can find health and wellness experts on Twitter who can help you find a path to a healthier lifestyle. Or, you can learn more about a specific disease and about the medicine or preventive care to treat or avoid that disease. This list of twenty cool uses for Twitter is a great tool for anyone who is interested in health care, and with each idea or disease, you’ll learn about several Twitter users who can help you learn more…

Health and Fitness

Stay updated with latest health news: You can gain access to news as it happens, sometimes before mainstream media pushes the news to the street. Try Health News from @HealthHive to stay abreast of news from across the country and across the world. If you’re into alternative medicine, you can follow the Health Expert @WorldwideHealth out of the UK.

Learn about latest developments: You can find many experts on Twitter who will disseminate information about the latest updates in their fields. For instance, you can learn more about the juxtaposition between yoga and cancer through @YogaBear. Or, you can follow what the government is doing about HIV/AIDS at @AIDSgov.

Get fitness updates: If you are training for a triathlon from 5k to Ironman, you can follow @coachprs for tips on getting to that goal. You can get the latest news, information, tips on dieting and exercise and a healthy lifestyle from @FitnessJedi, or follow Mike Miller and his @yourhealthtips to get daily health tips and services.

Learn about daily or hourly exercises and programs: Are you bored at your desk? Follow Ron S. Doyle and his @twittercize to get fit, one tweet at a time…his hourly exercises take less than one minute each, and his humor is contagious. If you’re a trainer, you can follow AFAA Fitness and the Twitter feed at @affa_fit to learn more about their programs.

Get nutritional advice: If you ever wonder whether or not you are what you eat, then learn answers about that question from folks like @PulseonFitness for fitness and nutrition news and links or follow Vicki Berry and her @yournutrition. She is a wellness enthusiast, passionate about staying healthy.

Lose weight safely: An ex-health inspector, food scientist, cyclist and vegan offers health tips, recipes and ideas for health and weight loss at @lifelonghealth. Fred Bloem, MD, is a holistic physician who concentrates on a holistic approach to detoxification and weight loss at @drbloem, and you can follow Diana Herrington’s daily information about health, especially on gluten-free diets and nutrition, at @DancinginLife.

Diseases

Arthritis: You can follow a number of resources on arthritis at Twitter, including the Arthritis Foundation at @arthritis_org and Arthritis News on @ArthritisUpdate. Arthritis Today Magazine has a Twitter account at @ArthritisToday, and you can follow them to learn more from articles on arthritis pain relief, exercises, diets and more.

Obesity: Learn how to eat healthy through the nutrition and weight loss tweets listed above. Obesity tweets at @obesity_tweet brings news about obesity to over 16,000 followers and The Obesity Society at @ObesitySociety provides science-based understanding of the causes, consequences, prevention and treatment of obesity.

Cancer: Cancer is a hot topic on Twitter, and you can find dozens of tweets about this disease from Know Cancer (@know_cancer), American Cancer Society (@AmericanCancer) and CURE Magazine (@cure_magazine).

Flu: No matter the type of flu you’re interested in, Twitter holds a number of organizations and individuals who can share information and tips. Try @FluGov, a government site about flu, Bird Flu/Swine Flu at @birdflu or Pandemic Flu at @Pandemicflu global to learn more.

Heart Health: Learn more about how to protect your heart from disease and stroke with news, information and research from Heart Health at @HeartsHealth, or from American Heart News at @HeartNews. The American Heart Association also tweets at @foundersheart.

Alzheimer’s Disease: This disease has devastated entire families, and the cure is far from realized. Stay abreast of news, gain support and network with the following: Alzheimer’s Society (UK) at @alzheimerssoc, Alzheimer’s Association (Chicago) at @alzassociation and Alzheimer’s Reading Room at @ALZHEIMERSread.

Parkinson’s Disease: From caregivers to doctors, this disease is given airtime through Twitterers such as Parkinson’s Disease at @ParkinsonsUSA, MNT Parkinson’s News at @mnt_parkinsons and UMMC Parkinson’s at @UMMCParkinsons.

Rare Diseases: If you want to know more about rare diseases among adults and children, scope out the patient-driven Rare Diseases Europe at @eurordis or Rare Diseases at @CheckOrphan, a platform dedicated to people working with or affected by rare, orphan or neglected diseases.

Medicine

Tips and ideas: Eve if you don’t understand medicine, you can learn about its uses through tweets from tweeters such as A Disease A Day at @diseaseaday, Medscape at @Medscape or the Medpedia Project at @medpedia.

Learn from doctors: Many doctors have caught on to Twitter, and you can learn about medicine, healthy lifestyles, surgery and disease from tweeters such as Dr. Mehmet Oz at @DrOz or Michael Bermant, MD at @DrBermant.

Get updates from authorities: Receive tweets from authoritative journals such as BMU (British Medical Journal) at @bmj_latest or through institutions such as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) at @FDA_Drug_Info. Some consider the Centers for Disease Control to be the ultimate authority — you can follow them at @CDCgov.

Learn how to care for patients at home: If you’re taking care of an elderly person or a sick person at home, you can pick up some tips from Twitter users such as Elder Care at @4eldercare or Senior Helpers at @SrHelpersNatl.

Stay on top of research and developments: A great number of medical research facilities use Twitter to pass on their news and insights. Some of the most popular resources include @NIHforHealth (National Institute of Health), @FDA_Drug_Info (Food and Drug Administration) and @NatureMedicine, a biomedical research journal devoted to publishing the latest advances in biomedical research for scientists and physicians.

Learn about alternative healing: If you want to learn about alternatives to traditional healing, try these experts: Chinese Medicine at @AsanteAcademy is Middlesex University’s Teaching Centre for Chinese Medicine and Natural Cures at @CuredbyNature collects information about home remedies from all over the globe.